Brighton & Hove Albion manager, Roberto De Zerbi has praised his players for a “fantastic” performance in their 3-3 draw at home to Brentford.
Pontus Jansson and Ivan Toney twice put Brentford ahead in the first half only for Kaoru Mitoma and Danny Welbeck to cancel out their goals, before Alexis Mac Allister’s 90th minute penalty resulted in a 3-3 draw after Ethan Pinnock had put the Bees ahead for a third time.
Brighton though dominated the attack with 33 shots in total, of which 15 were on target compared to Brentford who were ultimately clinical in converting three of their five shots on target into goals.
De Zerbi nevertheless praised his Seagulls for their performance without rising forward, Evan Ferguson – who missed out with a knock, as he commented: “I thought we played in a fantastic way and I was really pleased with the performance.
“But we showed a lot of character and I love the players, this team, although we conceded three goals which was incredible so we have to improve in these situations.”
The Italian though admitted that it is “impossible” to not concede goals across every match, yet added that he found their defending of set pieces “difficult to understand” after Brentford scored twice from set pieces despite the game trending in Brighton’s favour.
De Zerbi though applauded Brentford for being “a tough team” but believes that his sixth-placed Seagulls can achieve a place in “Europe” next season, of which they will have three league games in hand on their rivals come end of April.
Goalkeeper, Jason Steele produced the assist for Mitoma’s goal and De Zerbi admitted that they had “worked on that situation” in training, which left him feeling “good” to see it achieved on the pitch in match action.
De Zerbi though noted that Brighton had achieved 54 shots in total across both meetings against Brentford this season, yet bemused that they have claimed just one point across those two matches as he concluded that the draw was “a great point because football can be like this,” in unpredictability.
Brighton are next in action on Tuesday 4 April as they visit Bournemouth in a rearranged meeting, which was postponed in September following Queen Elizabeth II’s death.
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